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Classroom Activities

Videos from the Story Gallerycan be easily used spark a conversation, initiate a writing activity, or begin a research project in
support of your curriculum. Understanding other perspectives and cultures is a critical curriculum
competency standard. These stories, written, narrated, and filmed by
Senegalese students,provide a unique opportunity to explore real world
issues in your classroom.

These stories inspired an internationally-acclaimed feature film,TALL AS THE BAOBAB TREE. that comes with free educational materialsto support Grade 8-12 standards correlated curricula and guided discussions for community groups and universities.

What surprised you about the stories?

How is your life different from these lives of the students?

What else do you want to know after viewing one of these videos?

The students worked in teams to make the videos. What other examples of teamwork do you see when you watch the stories?

Take one thing you learned about Senegalese village life and compare
and contrast it with your own life. What story might you tell
to “answer” the story told in a Senegalese video?

How do your responsibilities at home or school compare to those of these Senegalese students?

Write a one-line movie tagline, or slogan, for each of the video
stories here Make them catchy so that others will want to see the videos,
too.

Many students in these videos talked about what they’d like to do
change in their villages. If you could change one thing about your
community, what would it be? What changes do you hope to see in your
hometown 10 years from now? What changes do you hope to see in your
country 10 years from now?

These stories were filmed in the village of Sinthiou Mbadane Senegal. Where's that? Geographically how does it compare to where you live? (See page: about Sinthiou Mbadane)